MASNA August 9th, 2006 BOD Meeting Minutes

 

(This meeting was held electronically on August 9th, 2005 9: PM EST)

 

Attendance:

 

BOD Present:

 

Cheri Phillips (President)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Amy Larsan (Membership & Secretary)

Charles Scannell (Industry/Webmaster)
Cathy Garey (Public Relations)

 

 

BOD Absent:

 

Lisa O’Connor (Internet Promotions)

Steve Bentz (Vice President)

 

 

Members Other Than BOD Present:

 

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Jim (Greater MN Reef Soc)
Cameron (North Alabama Reef Club)
Bill Reed (South Jersey Marine and Reef Club)

 

 

OFFICER REPORTS:

 

NOTE: All officer reports were distributed via email to the BOD in advance of this meeting.  They have been formatted and are inserted into these minutes.

 

 

1) President’s Report:

 

MACNA XIII:

·        Sent a request to the conference hotel asking for the invoice for the annual meeting refreshments so that we can get that paid for prior to the deadline.

·        Have gotten the count of current MASNA brochures in hand and am getting an estimate from VistaPrint for additional printing. There is a special good through 9/6 for 20% off any product ordered.

·        We need to discuss if we want a one-page flyer to be stuffed in each MASNA goody bag this year or not – we can use the same 20% discount if we want this.

 

MASNA Board 2006-2007:

·        I worked w/ Chuck to update MASNA’s website nomination, candidate and election pages in preparation for upcoming nominations for the next board.

·        Had a phone call with a gentleman that is interested in the MASNA Editor position. It turns out that he and another gal would actually like to co-chair that position (one for his writing skills and the other for her newsletter layout ability). This requires Board discussion to determine how best to handle this great idea within the boundaries of the MASNA by-laws.

·        Solicited the current BOD to turn in their self-nominations if they intend to run again.

 

MASNA Award:

·        I ordered the crystal award for the winner and picked it up when it was completed. The total charged was $130. I contacted the award recipient and he will be at the MACNA banquet dinner to receive his award.

 

Club Website Awards:

·        I created the form to use for the judging and sent that out to Amy, Steve and Chuck who will judge this year, along with myself. Judging is to be completed by the end of the month.

·        I obtained a high resolution form of the MACNA XVIII graphic to use in creation of the actual website award certificate

 

 

Newsletter:

·        Collaborated w/ Cathy on the idea of having an article in the newsletter based upon how MASNA members cope with high temperature issues and their tanks.

·        Have reviewed and commented on an article for the newsletter by Del Brashares in collaboration w/ Steve Bentz regarding the Drs. Foster & Smith frag swap event

 

MASNA 2006 Photo Contest & 2007 Calendars

·        I searched the Reef Central Photography forum, found some folks that clearly take nice photos and PM’d them attempting to coax additional photo contest entries. That strategy clearly worked in a few cases.

·        Multiple correspondences w/ Bob, Lisa and the judges regarding photo contest and calendar issues. Judging by Anthony Calfo, Daniel Knop and Eric Borneman is now complete. I’ve left eMAIL messages to Scot Michael’s regular eMAIL address, info@coralrealm.com and a voice message at his home. He has not yet responded. We may need to substitute another judge for the Fish category.

 

Misc:

• Collaborated w/ Chuck to create a new MASNA Members Specials website page. Sent out eMAILs to all MASNA Individual members and a separate eMAIL to all club delegates regarding the member’s only specials Drs. Foster & Smith are offering.
  
  
• I was contacted by Rob Tess (MACNA XVI) requesting that I help ensure that he stops receiving invoices from Aquarium Fish Magazine. He has gotten them for advertising for MACNA XVII and now XVIII – AFM is not creating a new account each year or updating the contact info for the existing account. I contacted the MARSH President and VP regarding straightening this out.
  
  
• Nancy Swart was contacted by Jeff Holcomb of the Greater Madison Convention and Visitor’s Bureau regarding the possibility of bringing MACNA to Madison, WI. Nancy passed this to me and I sent an eMAIL to Jeff explaining the process of city selection for MACNA.

 

 

2) Vice President’s Report:

 

Organization:

• Received the 2006 Corporation Filing from Bob Lemcke to file for 501(c)(3) Status.  The completed forms will be scanned and sent to Cheri and Bob for review and approval prior to MACNA XVIII.  Once approved, the filing will be signed by the required officers and sent to the Federal Government for approval.

 

Membership:

• Worked with Drs. Foster & Smith to offer a “year-round” MASNA Members Only Discount of products that can only be accessed by logging in to www.masna.org as an individual member or club designee.  Products offered will change each month depending on product availability at the discretion of Drs. Foster & Smith.
  
  
• Posted a thread to agree to waive The Hidden Reefs’ 2006/07 Corporate Membership given that we were never able to refund their $100 sponsorship for this fiscal year due to the fire that closed their store.  I have been in touch with the owner and he is planning to open a new store near the old location within the next few months.

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=masna&Number=491&page=0&vc=1&fpart=1

 

2007 Photo Calendar Contest:

• Solicited and obtained 12 Corporate (OEM) Sponsors @ $125/month or $1,500 for banner ads to offset MASNA Calendar expenses.  Subsequently sent billing information to Bob Lemcke.
  
  
• Discussed various options for bulk sales for this year but those talks fell through.  Plans have been made to discuss bulk sales at MACNA XVIII to attempt to secure vendor pre-sales orders prior to the vendors finalizing their advertising budgets for 2007.

 

MACNA Follow-up and Presentations:

• Wrote a Marine Scene article with an update on The Scholarship Fund following the Board approval of the roles last month.
  
  
• Co-wrote a Marine Scene article on the Drs. Foster & Smith 2-day Coral Frag Swap with Del Brasheres of the St. Louis Reef Club.

 

MACNA XVIII Club Website Award:

• Agreed to serve as a judge for the MASNA Website Award.

 

Scholarship Fund:

• “Personally” adopted two schools to track through 2006-07 and will write a quarterly article for The Marine Scene to chart their progress beginning this fall.  Wooster High School in Reno, NV and a small Day Care Center in Rhinelander, WI have agreed to provide me with regular updates on their reef tank progress during the school year.  In the meantime, I will solicit other learning programs to report on as well such as Saltwater U in Atlanta and others that are brought to MASNA for review.  My goal is to bring these programs to national attention with the hope that retailers and other vendors can assist with the ongoing needs of these programs over time and offer cost reductions to those schools for maintenance items.
  
  
• In discussion with Drs. Foster & Smith about the prospects of receiving funding from next year’s Coral Conference & Frag Swap.  MASNA has a wide range of opportunity to maximize the success of this years’ event and work to gain some level of donation from multiple fundraising strategies.  Details should be available shortly after the MACNA Conference in September.

 

 

3) Treasurer’s Report:

Will be submitted for next months minutes.

 

4) Director of Membership Report 

 

	2002- 2003	2003- 2004	2004- 2005	2005- 2006	Diff From 2004- 2005	Comment
Individual Members	88	64	115	174	+59	New:   Chris Edwards Troy Mire Julie Bauknecht Donna Le Saicherre Richard Sullivan Deane Palliser Rodger Moore Victoria Rawson Cory Sorensen Jake Adams Anthony Hix Li Chieh Hsu Justin Phillips Zachary Callis John Bundridge Paul Goldworm Laura Killinger   Renewals:
Club Members	20	27	44	44	0	New:       Renewal:
Corporate Members	10	10	19	28	+9	New:   Logan's Reef   Renewals:

 

• I sent in all of the welcomes and corporate thank you emails.

 

• I helped members who needed new user names and or passwords

 

• I emailed with Coral Dynamics get their banner running on our site

 

• I changed the contact information for CMAS

 

• I answered questions about the photo contest to those who emailed or PMed me

 

• I spoke about MASNA in an upcoming reefcast podcast

 

• I emailed with MarineDepot who will be joining MASNA at this coming MACNA, and want to be active involved with us. As well as perhaps donating to the scholarship fund

 

• I voted on all board threads

 

• I BUMPed photo contest threads as needed.

 

• I have begun viewing club websites for the website awards

 

• I suggested that certain fields on our online application be mandatory in order for the application to go through.

 

 

5) Secretary’s Report:

 

Board Thread Votes:

 

• Calendar Pre-Order Pricing

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=463&an=0&page=0#463

 

            Motion passed 6 ayes, for club and non-club pricing.

 

• Pre-order # of Calendars to purchase

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=masna&Number=482&page=0&vc=1&fpart=1

 

• Waive The Hidden Reef Corp Sponsor Fee

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=491&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD

 

             Motion passed, 6 aye 0 nay

 

Email Votes:

 

None

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

• I sent out the meeting notice to all members

 

• I posted the meeting notice on the message boards

 

• I tracked all BOD threads and votes

 

• I finished the July meeting minutes and sent them out to the BOD

 

 

6) Webmaster’s/Industry Report:

 

Unable to find report.

 

7) Internet Promotion Officer’s Report:

 

• I worked with Bob to get all images loaded to the website for the Photo Calendar Contest. 

 

• I am now gathering all the data and placing it in an excel format for our records.  This will be given to Bob.

 

 

8) Public Relations Report:

 

Participate in Board Forum Votes re:

 

1)      Pre-order Club pricing for 2007 Calendars

 

2)      # of pre-order calendars to purchase.

 

3)      # of calendars > pre-order + commitments to buy

 

4)      Hidden Reef Corp. Sponsor fee for 2006/07.

 

5)       MASNA Award 2006 (purchase @ increased cost)

 

Participate in Board Discussion re:

 

1)      Expenditure to fund IOLC Trip Outside of USA

 

2)      # (of calendars) to order for MASNA membrshp & to e-tailers & LFS

 

• Solicited 9 (free) ads for last newsletter (with Steve’s assistance).  Obtained 2 (free) ads for next Newsletter – sent to Cheri.

 

• I sent out emails to all club contacts to promote photo contest and club pre-orders for calendars.  Obtained pre-orders from 4 clubs for total of 80 calendars.

 

• Worked with Cheri to develop “BEAT THE HEAT” survey and worked with Chuck to get it online.  I sent out mass email announcement (all member categories) with link to online survey.  Survey ends Wednesday, 8/9/06 – currently collecting and analyzing responses (> 90 @ this time) which I will report to all BOD for inclusion in next newsletter.

 

• Working on brief article (club news – CMAS field trip to Atlanta Aquarium) with Carl Huntley for inclusion in upcoming Newsletter (with photos).  Also offered to help Cheri & Chuck with Newsletter as needed.

 

 

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EST:

 

 

9) New Business:

 

• Motion made by C. Phillips to accept the July meeting minutes. Second made by A. Lasan. Motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays.

 

10) New Business:

 

• C. Phillps informed the BOD that she has not had any response back from Scott Michael about judging the Fish category for the 2007 MASNA calendar. She will give him one more day to respond by before an alternative judge needs to be put in place.

 

• Anthony Calfo has agreed to be the replacement judge if needed.

 

• The winners of the other three categories have been chosen.

 

• A total of 148 photos were submitted. Although that is less photos then the year before, this year had more contestants.

 

• The have been 700 calendars order and currently two vendors are in touch and possible more will be ordered. Thus far 700 total, ~298 preordered + 400 BOD approved.

 

• Invoices have been sent to all nine sponsors. We are still waiting on some sponsors graphics for the calendar.

 

• The deadline will be close for the graphic artist to get the calendars to Houston for MACNA.

 

• C. Garey will check with the host hotel to be sure they will accept and hold the calendars for us. She will report back to the BOD when possible.

 

• Envelopes with the cash prize for the photo contest winners who will be attending MACNA will be provided.

 

11) New Business:

 

• C. Phillips asked the BOD members to please send in their nominations ASAP if they intend to run again for the coming year. This needs to be done before C. Phillips send out the announcement.

 

• The editor position would like to be shared by two people, Del Brashares and Becky McAlister. They would like to work together if possible for this position. The question if this is allowed in the by-laws was brought up.
  
  There is a concern that with two people sharing the same position how their votes              would be counted in matters brought before the BOD. It was agreed that it could be worked out, and any ties would be broken by the MASNA president as stated in the bi-laws
  
  The idea of splitting the position was brought up but agreed to not be a good option. Better yet was the option of one of the candidates running for the MASNA “At Large” position. That position is a voting one and basically fills in as needed for the BOD

 

• C. Phillips will discuss this with Del Brashares and Becky McAlister to see how they would feel about one of them running for “Editor” and the other running for the “At Large”.

 

12) New Business:

 

• Steven Pro gave a MACNA XIX update

 

1. The hotel and exposition center have been finalized.

 

2. 11 speakers have committed.

 

3. Three web addresses have been registered: PittsburghMACNA, MACNAXIX, and MACNA2007

 

4. The vendor packet is finally complete

 

5. PMASI booth at MACNA XVIII and prices are being discussed currently

 

6. MACNA XIX will be held on Sept. 14-16

 

• The topic of if Steven Pro and or the BOD of PMASI should have the ability to solicit vendors for booth space for MACNA XIX was brought up. Many on the BOD feared that it was too early and not right for his club to approach vendors while the current MACNA host is working still with vendors.
  
  Accord to MASNA’s planning MACNA handout the next club can start planning their event 14 months out. The confusion was over if that meant they can solicit for vendors and or attendees at that time.
  
  The BOD needs to have the time to visit their contract wording for PMASI and discuss with each other in a BOD forum thread what would be the right thing to have done at this time. At what time future clubs should be allowed to solicit vendors and attendees.
  
  The BOD let Steven Pro know that they will cover this topic ASAP and give him a reply in about a week’s time. He was asked and agreed to hold off approaching any vendors at this time until the BOD has time to talk it over. Kim from MARSH will be contacted as well for her input.

 

• Other MACNA updates:

 

1.      PMASI are working on their merchant account to accept credit cards. 

 

2.      The website is doming along, although it is all offline/hidden from view.

 

3.      They are meeting with an accountant to work through our 501-c(3) status next week.

 

Motion to adjourn meeting to general discussion made by C. Phillips. Second by C. Garey. Passed 5 ayes, 0 nays at 10:45 PM EST